In
Buddhism, the primary reason we study the Dhamma (the truth) is to find the way
to transcend suffering and attain peace. Whether you study physical or mental
phenomena, the citta (mind or consciousness) or cetasika (mental
factors), it is only when you make liberation from suffering your ultimate
goal, rather than anything else, that you will be practicing in the correct
way. This is because suffering and its causes already exist right here and now.

As
you contemplate the cause of suffering, you should understand that when that
which we call the mind is still, it's in a state of normality. As soon as it
moves, it becomes sankhara (that which is fashioned or concocted). When
attraction arises in the mind, it is sankhara; when aversion arises, it
is sankhara. If there is desire to go here and there, it is sankhara.
As long as you are not mindful of these sankharas, you will tend to
chase after them and be conditioned by them. Whenever the mind moves, it becomes
sammuti-sankhara - enmeshed in the conditioned world - at that moment.
And it is these sankharas - these movements of the mind - which the
Buddha taught us to contemplate.

Whenever
the mind moves, it is aniccam (impermanent), dukkham (suffering)
and anatta (not self). The Buddha taught us to observe and contemplate
this. He taught us to contemplate sankharas which condition the mind.
Contemplate them in light of the teaching of paticcasamuppada (Dependent
Origination): avijja (ignorance) conditions sankhara (karmic
formations); sankhara conditions vinnana (consciousness); vinnana
conditions nama (mentality) and rupa (materiality); and so on.

You
have already studied and read about this in the books, and what's set out here
is correct as far as it goes, but in reality you're not able to keep up with
the process as it actually occurs. It's like falling out of a tree: in a flash,
you've fallen all the way from the top of the tree and hit the ground, and you
have no idea how many branches you passed on the way down. When the mind
experiences an arammana (mind-object) and is attracted to it, all of a
sudden you find yourself experiencing a good mood without being aware of the
causes and conditions which led up to it. Of course, on one level the process
happens according to the theory described in the scriptures, but at the same
time it goes beyond the limitations of the theory. In reality, there are no
signs telling you that now it's avijja, now it's sankhara, then
it's vinnana, now it's nama-rupa and so on. These scholars who
see it like that, don't get the chance to read out the list as the process is
taking place. Although the Buddha analyzed one moment of consciousness and
described all the different component parts, to me it's more like falling out
of a tree - everything happens so fast you don't have time to reckon how far
you've fallen and where you are at any given moment. What you know is that
you've hit the ground with a thud, and it hurts!

What
takes place in the mind is similar. Normally, when you experience suffering,
all you really see is the end result, that there is suffering, pain, grief and
despair present in the mind. You don't really know where it came from - that's
not something you can find in the books. There's nowhere in the books where the
intricate details of your suffering and its causes are described. The reality
follows along the same course as the theory outlined in the scriptures, but
those who simply study the books and never get beyond them, are unable to keep
track of these things as they actually happen in reality.

Thus
the Buddha taught to abide as 'that which knows' and simply bear witness to
that which arises. Once you have trained your awareness to abide as 'that which
knows', and have investigated the mind and developed insight into the truth
about the mind and mental factors, you'll see the mind as anatta (not
self). You'll see that ultimately all mental and physical formations are things
to be let go of and it'll be clear to you that it's foolish to attach or give
undue importance to them.

The
Buddha didn't teach us to study the mind and mental factors in order to become
attached to them, he taught simply to know them as aniccam, dukkham, anatta.
The essence of Buddhist practice then, is to let them go and lay them aside.
You must establish and sustain awareness of the mind and mental factors as they
arise. In fact, the mind has been brought up and conditioned to turn and spin
away from this natural state of awareness, giving rise to sankhara which
further concoct and fashion it. It has therefore become accustomed to the
experience of constant mental proliferation and of all kinds of conditioning,
both wholesome and unwholesome. The Buddha taught us to let go, you must first
study and practice. This is in accordance with nature - the way things are. The
mind is just that way, mental factors are just that way - this is just how it
is.

Consider
magga (the Noble Eightfold Path), which is founded on panna or
Right View. If there is Right View it follows that there will be Right
Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood and so on. These all
necessarily involve mental factors, which arise out of the knowing. The knowing
is like a lantern. If there is Right Knowing it will pervade every aspect of
the path, giving rise to Right Intention, Right Speech and so on, just like the
light of the lantern illuminating the path along which you have to travel. In
the end, whatever the mind experiences, it must arise from the knowing. If this
mind didn't exist, the knowing couldn't exist either. These are the essential
characteristics of the mind and mental factors.

All
this things are mental phenomena. The Buddha taught that the mind is the mind -
it's not a living being, a person, a self, an 'us' or a 'them'. The Dhamma is
simply the Dhamma - it's not a living being, a person, a self, an 'us' or a
'them'. There's nothing, which is substantial. Whatever aspect of this
individual existence you choose, whether it's vedana (feelings) or sanna
(perception), for example, it all comes within the range of the five khandhas
(aggregates). So it should be let go of.

Meditation
is like a plank of wood. Lets say vipassana (insight) is one end of the
plank and samatha (calm) is the other. If you were to pick the plank up,
would just one end come up or would both of them? Of course when you pick up
the plank, both sides come up together. What is vipassana? What is samatha?
They are the mind itself. At first the mind becomes peaceful through the
practice of samatha, through samadhi (firmness of mind). By
developing samadhi you can make the mind peaceful. However, if the peace
of samadhi disappears, suffering arises. Why does suffering arise?
Because the kind of peace which comes through samatha is itself samudaya
(the Noble truth of the Origin of Suffering). It's a cause for suffering to
arise. Even though a certain state of peace has been attained, the practice is
not yet finished. The Buddha saw from his own experience, that this isn't the
end of the practice. The process of becoming is not yet completely exhausted;
the conditions for continued birth still exist; the practice of the Holy Life
is still incomplete. Why is it incomplete? Because suffering still exists. He
thus took up the calm of samatha and continued to contemplate it,
investigating to gain insight until he was no longer attached to it. Such calm
is one kind of sankhara and is still part of the world of conditions and
conventions. Attaching to the calm of samatha means attaching to the
world of conditions and conventions, you are attached to becoming and birth.
That act of taking delight in the tranquility of samatha is becoming and
birth. When that restless and agitated thinking disappears through the practice
of samatha, the mind attaches to the resultant peace, but it's another form
of becoming. It still leads to further birth.

The
cycle of becoming and birth arose again and, of course, the Buddha was
immediately aware of it. The Buddha went on to contemplate the causes behind
becoming and birth. As long as he was unable to completely comprehend the truth
of this matter, he continued to use the tranquil mind as a means to penetrate
deeper and deeper with his contemplation. He reflected upon all formations that
arose, whether peaceful or agitated, until eventually he saw that all
conditions are like a lump of red hot iron. The five khandhas are just
like this. When a piece of iron is glowing red hot all over, is there any part
of it you can touch without getting burnt? Can there be anywhere at all which
is cool? If you tried touching it on the top, the sides, underneath, or
anywhere, would you be able to find a single spot which was cool? Obviously
there wouldn't be a cool place anywhere, because that lump of iron is red hot
all over. Similarly, each of the five khandhas is as if red hot to the
touch. It's a mistake to attach to calm states of mind, or think that the calm
is you or that there is a self, which is calm. If you presume that the calm is
you or that there is someone who is calm, this only reinforces the idea that
there's a solid entity, a self or atta. But this sense is just
conventional reality. If you attach to the thought 'I'm peaceful', 'I'm
agitated', 'I'm good', 'I'm bad', 'I'm happy' or 'I'm suffering', it means you
are caught in more becoming and birth. It's more suffering. When happiness
disappears it changes to suffering. If the suffering disappears it becomes
happiness. And you get caught endlessly spinning around between happiness and
suffering, heaven and hell, unable to put a stop to it.

The
Buddha observed that his mind was conditioned in this way and reflected that
the causes for becoming and birth were still present and the practice was still
unfinished. As a result, he deepened his contemplation of the true nature of sankharas
because a cause exists, there is accordingly birth and death and these
characteristics of movement back and forth in the mind. He contemplated this
repeatedly to see clearly the truth about the five khandhas. All
physical and all mental phenomena and everything that the mind thinks, are sankharas.
The Buddha taught that once you have discerned this, you'd let them go,
you'll naturally give them up. These things should be known as they are in
reality. As long as you don't know things in accordance with the truth you have
no choice but to suffer. You can't let go of them. But once you have penetrated
the truth and understand how things are, you see these things as deluding. This
is what the Buddha meant when he explained that really, the mind, which has
seen the truth of the way things are is empty, it is inherently unentangled
with anything. It isn't born belonging to anyone and it doesn't die as
anyone's. It is free. It is bright and radiant, free from any involvement with
external affairs and issues. The reason it gets entangled with external affairs
is because it's deluded by sankharas and the very sense of self.

The
Buddha thus taught us to look carefully at the mind. In the beginning what was
there? There was really nothing there. The process of birth and becoming and
these movements of mind weren't born with it and they don't die with it. When
the Buddha's mind encountered pleasant mind-objects, it didn't become delighted
with them. Contacting disagreeable mind-objects, he didn't become averse to
them - because he had clear knowledge and insight into the nature of the mind.
There was the penetrating knowledge that all such phenomena have no real
substance or essence to them. He saw them as aniccam, dukkham, anatta
and maintained this deep and profound insight throughout his practice.

It
is the knowing which discerns the truth of the way things are. The knowing
doesn't become delighted or sad with things. The condition of being delighted
is 'birth' and the condition of being distressed is 'death'. If there is death
there must be birth, if there is birth there must be death. This process of
birth and death is vatta - the cycle of birth and death which continues
on endlessly.

As
long as the mind of the practitioner gets conditioned and moved around like
this, there need be no doubt as to whether the causes for becoming and rebirth
still remain; there is no need to ask anyone. The Buddha thoroughly
contemplated the characteristics of sankharas and as a result could let
go of sankharas and each of the five khandhas. He became an
independent observer, simply acknowledging their existence and nothing more. If
he experienced pleasant mind-objects, he didn't become infatuated with them,
but simply watched and remained aware of them. If he experienced unpleasant
mind-objects, he didn't become averse towards them. Why was that? Because he
had discerned the truth and so the causes and conditions for further birth had
been cut off. The conditions supporting birth no longer existed. His mind had
progressed in the practice to the point where it gained its own confidence and
certainty in its understanding. It was a mind, which was truly peaceful - free
from birth, aging, sickness and death. It was that which was neither cause nor
effect; it was independent of the process of causal conditioning. There were no
causes remaining, they were exhausted. His mind had transcended birth and
death, happiness and suffering, good and evil. It was beyond the limitations of
words and concepts. There were no longer any conditions, which would give rise
to attachment in his mind. Anything to do with attachment to birth and death
and the process of causal conditioning, would be a matter of the mind and
mental factors.

Samatha and Vipassana must be developed in
yourself before you can really know the truth. It's possible to study from the
books to gain theoretical knowledge of the mind and mental factors, but you
can't use that kind of knowledge to actually cut off greed, hatred and
delusion. You have only studied about the external characteristics of greed,
hatred and delusion and are simply describing the different features of the
defilement'sÖgreed is like this, hatred is like that and so on. You only know
as much as their external qualities and superficial appearance, and can only
talk about them on that level. You might have developed some awareness and
insight, but the important thing is that when the defilement's actually arise
in the mind, does it fall under their control and take on their features? For
instance, when you encounter an undesirable mind-object, a reaction will occur
which leads to the mind taking on certain qualities. Do you attach to that
reaction? Can you let go of your reaction? Once you become aware of aversion
that has arisen, does 'that which knows' store that aversion in the mind, or
having seen it, is 'that which knows' able to let it go immediately?

If
having experienced something you dislike, you still store up aversion in the
mind, you must take your practice back to square one. Because you are still at
fault; the practice is still not perfect. If it reaches the point of
perfection, the mind will automatically let things go. Look at the practice in
this way. You really have to look deeply into your mind for the practice to
become paccatam. If you tried to describe the mind and mental factors in
terms of the number of separate moments of consciousness and their different
characteristics in accordance with the theory, it still wouldn't be nearly
enough. The truth has much more to it than this. If you are really going to
learn about these things, you must gain clear insight and direct understanding
to penetrate them. If you don't have any true insight, how will you ever get
beyond theory? There's no end to it. You would have to keep studying it
indefinitely.

Thus
the practice is thus the most important thing. In my own practice, I didn't
spend all my time studying all the theoretical descriptions of the mind and
mental factors - I watched 'that which knows'. When the mind had thoughts of
aversion I asked, 'Why is there aversion?' If there was attraction I asked,
'Why is there attraction?' This is the way to practice. I didn't know all the
finer points of theory or go into a detailed analytical break down of the mind
and the mental factors. I just kept prodding at that one point of the mind, until
I was able to settle the whole issue of aversion and attraction and make it
completely vanish. Whatever happened, if I could bring my mind to the point
where it stopped liking and disliking, it had gone beyond suffering. It had
reached the point where it could remain at ease, whatever it was experiencing.
There was no craving or attachmentÖit had stopped. This is what you're aiming
for in the practice. If other people want to talk a lot about theory that's
their business. In the end, though, however much you talk about it, the
practice has to come back to this point. Even if you don't talk much about it,
the practice still comes back to this point. Whether you proliferate a lot or a
little, it all comes back to this. If there is birth, it comes from this. If
there is extinction, this is where the extinction occurs. However much the mind
proliferates, it doesn't make any difference. The Buddha called this place
'that which knows'. It has the function of knowing according to the truth of
the way things are. Once you have really discerned the truth, you automatically
know the way the mind and the mental factors are.

The
mind and the mental factors constantly deceive you, never letting up for a
moment. When studying about these things, they're deceiving you - there's no
other way of putting it. Even though you are aware of them, they are still
deluding you right at that moment. This is the way it is. The Buddha didn't
intend that you should only know about suffering and the defilement's by name,
his aim was for you to actually find the way of practice which will lead you to
transcend suffering. He taught to investigate and find the cause of suffering
from the most basic to the most refined level. As for myself, I have been able
to practice without a great amount of theoretical knowledge. It's enough to
know that the Path begins with sila (moral restraint). Sila is
that which is beautiful in the beginning. Samadhi is that which is
beautiful in the middle. Panna (wisdom) is that which is beautiful in
the end. As you deepen your practice and contemplation of these three aspects,
they merge and become one thing, although you can still see them as three
separate parts of the practice.

As
a prerequisite for training in sila, panna must actually be there, but
we usually say that the practice begins with sila. It's the foundation.
It's just that panna is the factor that determines just how successful
and complete the practice of sila is. You need to contemplate your
speech and actions and investigate the process of cause and effect - which is
all a function of panna. You have to depend on panna before sila
can be established.

According
to the theory, we say that it's sila, samadhi and then panna; but
I've reflected on this and found that panna underlies all the other aspects
of the practice. You need to fully understand the effects of your speech and
actions on the mind and how it is that they can bring about harmful results.
Through reasoned reflection you use panna to guide, control and thereby
purify your actions and speech. If you know the different characteristics of
your actions and speech, which are conditioned by both wholesome and
unwholesome mental states, you can see the place of practice. You see that if
you're going to cultivate sila, it involves giving up evil and doing
good; giving up doing wrong and doing that which is right. Once the mind has
given up doing wrong and has cultivated doing what is right, it will
automatically turn inwards to focus upon itself and become firm and steady.
When it's free from doubt and uncertainty about speech and actions, the mind
will be steadfast and unwavering, providing the basis for becoming firmly
concentrated in samadhi. This firm concentration forms the second and
more powerful source of energy in the practice, allowing you more fully
contemplate the sights, sounds and other sense objects which you experience.
Once the mind is established with firm and unwavering calm and mindfulness, you
can engage in the sustained contemplation of form, feeling, perception, thought
and consciousness, and with the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile
sensations and mind-objects, and see that all of these are constantly arising.
As a result you will gain insight into the truth of these phenomena and how
they arise according to their own nature. When there is continuous awareness,
it will be the cause for panna to arise. Once there is clear knowledge
in accordance with the true nature of the way things are, your old sanna
and sense of self will gradually be uprooted from it's former conditioning and
will be transformed into panna. Ultimately, sila, samadhi and panna
will merge in the practice, as one lasting and unified whole.

As
panna strengthens, it acts to develop samadhi which becomes
steadier and more unshakable. The firmer samadhi becomes, the more
resolute and complete sila becomes. As sila is perfected, it
nurtures samadhi, and the strengthening of samadhi leads to a
maturing of panna. These three aspects of the practice are pretty much
inseparable - they overlap so much. Growing together, they combine to form what
the Buddha called magga, the Path. When sila, samadhi and panna
reach their peak, magga has enough power to destroy the kilesa.
Whether it be greed, hatred or delusion which arises, it is only the strength
of magga which is capable of destroying it.

The
Four Noble Truth taught by the Buddha as a framework for practice are: dukkha
(suffering), samudaya (the cause of suffering), nirodha (the end
of suffering) and magga (the path leading to the end of suffering) which
consists of sila, samadhi and panna - modes of training which
exist the mind. Although I say these three words - sila, samadhi, panna
- out loud, they don't exist externally, they are rooted in the mind itself.

It
is the nature of sila, samadhi and panna to be at work
continuously, maturing all the time. If magga is strong in the mind,
whatever objects are experienced - whether they are forms, sounds, smells,
tastes, tactile sensations or thoughts - it will be in control. If magga is
strong it will destroy the kilesa. When it's weak and the kilesa
are strong, magga will be destroyed. The kilesa can destroy your
very heart. If mindfulness isn't fast enough as forms, feelings, perceptions
and thoughts arise into consciousness, they can destroy you. Magga and
the kilesa thus proceed side by side. The place where you put effort
into the practice is the heart. You have to keep sparring with the kilesa
every step of the way. It's as if there are two separate people arguing inside
your mind, but it's just magga and the kilesa struggling with
each other. Magga functions to control the mind and fosters your ability
to contemplate the Dhamma. As long as you are able to contemplate, the kilesa
will be losing the battle. But if at any time your practice weakens and the kilesa
regain their strength, magga will disappear and the kilesa will
take it's place. Necessarily, the two sides continue their struggle like this,
until eventually there is a winner and the whole affair is settled. If you
center your efforts on developing magga, it will continue to destroy the
defilement's. Ultimately, dukkha, samudaya, nirodha and magga
will come to exist in your heart - that's when you will have really practiced
with and penetrated the Four Noble Truths.

Whatever
suffering arises, in whatever form, it must have a cause - that is samudaya,
the second Noble Truth. What is the cause? The cause is that your practice of sila,
samadhi and panna is weak. When magga is weak, the kilesa
can take hold of the mind. When they take over the mind, they become samudaya
and inescapably give rise to different kinds of suffering. If suffering arises
it means that the aspect which is able to extinguish suffering has disappeared.
The factors which give rise to magga are sila, samadhi and panna.
When they have reached their full strength, the practice of magga will
advance inexorably, and will destroy samudaya - that which is able to
cause suffering in the mind. It is then - when suffering is in abeyance, unable
to arise because the practice of magga is in the process of cutting
through the kilesa - that suffering actually dies out in the mind. Why
are you able to extinguish suffering? Because the practice of sila, samadhi
and panna has reached it's highest level, which means that magga
has reached the point where its progress has become unstoppable. I say that if
you can practice like this, it will no longer matter where you have got to in
studying the theoretical knowledge of the mind and mental factors, because in
the end everything unifies in this one place. If the mind has transcended
conceptual knowledge, it will be very confident and certain in the practice,
having gone beyond all doubt. Even if it starts to wander off, you won't have
to chase it very far to bring it back onto the path.

What
are leaves of the mango tree like? It's enough just to pick up one leaf and
look at it to know. Even if you look at ten thousand leaves, you won't see much
more than you do looking at one. Essentially they are all the same. By looking
at one leaf, you can know all mango leaves. If you look at the trunk of the
mango tree, you only have to look at the trunk of one tree to know them all.
All the other mango tree trunks are the same. Even if there were a hundred
thousand of them, I would just have to look at one to really see them all. The
Buddha taught to practice Dhamma in this way.

Sila, samadhi and panna
are what the Buddha called magga - but maggais still not the heart of the Buddhaís
teaching. Itís not an end in itself and wasnít really what the Buddha wanted,
just by itself. But it is the way, which leads inwards. It would be like traveling
from Bangkok to this monastery, WatNongPah Pong. What you want is
to reach the monastery, you donít actually want the
road or the tarmac itself. But youíd need to use the road for the journey to
the monastery. The road and the monastery are not the same thing Ė the road is
simply the way to the monastery Ė but you have to follow the road if you want
to reach the monastery.

You could say
that neither sila, samadhi nor panna
form the heart of Buddhism, but they do form the pathway by which the heart of
Buddhism can be reached. Once you have practiced with sila,
samadhi and panna
to the highest level, peace arises as a result. This is the ultimate aim of the
practice. Once the mind is calm, even if you hear a sound it doesnít disturb
it. Having attained such calm, you no longer create anything in the mind. The
Buddha taught letting go. So whatever you experience, you donít have to fear or
worry. The practice reaches the point where it is truly paccatam
and because you have direct insight, you no longer simply have to believe what
other people say.

Buddhism is not
founded on anything strange or unusual. It doesnít depend on different kinds of
miraculous displays of psychic powers or super human abilities. The Buddha did
not praise or encourage those things. Such powers might exist and with your
practice of meditation it might be possible to develop them, but the Buddha
didnít praise or encourage them because they are potentially deluding. The only
people he did praise were those beings who were able to free themselves from
suffering. To do this they had to depend on the practice Ė our tools which are dana (generosity), sila,samadhi
and panna. These are what we have to train
with.

These things
form the way which leads inwards, but in order to reach the final destination,
there must first be pannato ensure the
development of magga. Magga
or the Eightfold Noble Path means sila, samadhi and panna. It
cannot grow if the mind is covered over with kilesa.
Ifmagga is strong it can destroy the kilesa; if the kilesa
are strong they can destroy magga. The
practice simply involves these two things battling it out until the end of the
path is reached. We have to struggle continuously, not ceasing, until the goal
is reached.

The tools and
supports of the practice are things which involve hardship and difficulty. We
must depend on patience and endurance, restraint and frugality. We must do the
practice for ourselves, so that it arises from within and really has
transformed our own minds.

Scholars
however, tend to doubt a lot. When they are sitting in meditation, as soon as
there is a little bit of calm they start to wonder if perhaps they have reached
first jhana. They tend to think like this. But
as soon as they start proliferating, the mind turns away from the objects and
they become completely distracted from the meditation. In a moment theyíre off
again, thinking that itís second jhana
already. Donít start proliferating about such matters. There arenít any
signposts that tell you which level of concentration you have reached; itís
completely different. There are no signs which sprout up and say, ĎThis way to NongPah Pongí. There isnít
anything for you to read along the way. There are many famous teachers who have
given descriptions of the first, second, third and fourth jhana,
but this information exists externally in the books. If the mind has really
entered into such deep levels of calm, it doesnít know anything about such
descriptions. There is awareness, but this is not the same as the knowledge you
gain from studying the theory. If those who have studied the theory hang on to
what they have learnt when they sit in meditation, taking notes on their
experience and wondering whether they have reached jhana
yet, their minds will be distracted right there and turn away from the
meditation. They wonít gain real understanding. Why is that? Because
there is desire. As soon as tanha
(craving) arises, whatever the meditation you are doing, it wonít develop
because the mind withdraws. It is essential that you learn how to give up all
thinking and doubting, give it up completely, all of it. You should just take
body, speech and mind as it is, as the basis for the practice and nothing else.
Contemplate the conditions of the mind, and donít lug the textbooks along with
you. There are no textbooks within where you are doing the practice. If you try
to take them in there with you, everything goes to waste, because they wonít be
able to describe how things are as you actually experience them.

People who have
studied a lot and have all the theory down pat, tend not to succeed with
meditation because they get stuck at the level of information. In actuality,
the mind isnít something which you can really measure using external standards
or text books. If itís really getting calm, allow it to become calm. In this
way it can proceed to reach the very highest levels of tranquility. My own
knowledge of the theory and scriptures was only modest. Iíve already told some
of the monks about the time I was practicing in my third rains retreat; I still
had many questions and doubts about samadhi. I
kept trying to work it out with my thoughts and the more I meditated,
the more restless and agitated the mind became. In fact it was so bad that I
would actually feel more peaceful when I wasnít meditating. It was really
difficult. But even though it was difficult, I didnít give up. I kept on
practicing, just the same. If I simply did the practice without having many
expectations about the results, it was fine. But if I determined to make my
mind calm and one-pointed, it would just make things worse. I couldnít work it
out. Ď Why is it like this?í, I asked myself.

Later on I began
to realize that itís the same as with the matter of breathing. If you determine
to take only short breaths, or to take only medium size breaths, or to take
only long breaths, it seems like a difficult thing to do. On the other hand,
when you are walking around, unaware of whether the breath is going out, you
are comfortable and at ease. I realized that the practice is similar. Normally,
when people are walking around and not meditating on the breath, do they ever
suffer because of their breathing? No. Itís not really such a problem. But if I
sat down determined to make my mind calm, it would automatically become upadana (attachment), there was clinging in there
too. I became determined to force the breath to be a certain way, either short
or long, that it became uneven and it was impossible to concentrate or keep my
mind on it. So then I was suffering even more than I had been before I started
meditating. Why was that? Because my determination itself
became attachment. It shut off awareness and I couldnít get any results.
Everything was burdensome and difficult because I was taking craving into the
practice with me.

On one occasion
I was walking cankama (walking meditation)
sometime after eleven oíclock at night. There was a festival going on
in the village, which was about half a mile from the forest monastery where I
was staying. I was feeling strange, and had been feeling like that since the
middle of the day. I was feeling unusually calm and wasnít thinking very much
about anything. I was tired from walking meditation, so I went to sit in my
small grass-roofed hut. Then just as I was sitting down, I found I had barely
enough time to tuck my legs in before my mind went into this deep place of
calm. It happened just by itself. By the time I got myself into the sitting
posture the mind was already deeply calm and I felt completely firm and stable
in the meditation. It wasnít that I couldnít hear the sounds of people singing
and dancing in the village; I could still hear them. But at the same time, I
could turn my attention inwards so that I couldnít hear the sounds as well. It
was strange. When I paid no attention to the sounds there was silence, I
couldnít hear anything. But if I wanted I could hear them and without feeling
disturbed. It was as if inside my mind there were two different objects placed
side by side, but not connected to one another. I could see that the mind and
the object were separate and distinct, just like this water kettle and the
spittoon here. As a result I understood that when the mind is calm in samadhi, if you direct your attention towards
sounds, you can hear them, but if you remain with the mind, in its emptiness,
it remains quiet. If a sound arises into consciousness and you watch what
happens, you see that the knowing and the mind-object are quite separate.

So I reflected:
ĎIf this isnít it, then what else could be. This is the way it is Ė the two
phenomena arenít connected at all.í I continued to contemplate until I realized
the importance of this point: when santati
(the continuity of things) was broken, the result was santi
(peace of mind). Formally there was santati
and now santi had emerged from it. The
experience of this gave me energy to persist with my meditation. I put intense
effort into the practice and was indifferent to everything else, the mind
didnít lose itís mindfulness even for an instant. If
Iíd wanted to stop formal practice, was there any laziness, tiredness or
irritation? None at all. The mind was completely free
from such defilements. What was left was the sense of complete balance or
Ďjust-rightnessí in the mind. If I was going to stop, it would just have been
to rest the body, not for anything else.

Eventually I did take a break. I just
stopped sitting so formally, but the mind didnít stop. It remained in the same
state and continued with the meditation as before. I pulled over my pillow and
prepared to rest. As I lay down, my mind was still just as calm. As I was about
to lay my head on the pillow, the mind inclined inwards Ė I didnít know where
it was headed, but it kept moving deeper and deeper within. It was as if
someone had turned on a switch and sent an electric current along a cable. With
a deafening bang, the body exploded from the inside. The awareness inside the
mind at that moment was at itís most refined. Having
passed beyond a certain point, it was as if the mind was cut loose and had
penetrated to the deepest, quietest spot inside. It settled there in a realm of
complete emptiness. Absolutely nothing could penetrate it from outside. Nothing
could reach it. Having stayed in there for a while, awareness then withdrew. I
donít mean to say that I made it withdraw; I was merely watching Ė just
witnessing what was going on. Having experienced these things, the mind
gradually withdrew and returned to itís normal state.

Once the mind
had returned to normal, the question arose: ĎWhat happened?í The reply came to
it was, ĎThese things are natural phenomena which occur according to causes and
conditions; thereís no need to doubt about them.í I only needed to reflect a
little like this and the mind accepted it. Having paused for a while, it
inclined inwards again. I didnít make any conscious effort to direct the mind,
it went by itself. As it continued to move deeper and deeper inwards, it hit
the same switch like before. This time the body shattered into the most minute and refined particles. Again, the mind was cut
loose and slipped deep inside itself. Silence. It was
at an even deeper level of calm than before Ė nothing could penetrate it.
Following itís own momentum, the mind stayed like that
some time and then withdrew as it wished. Everything was happening
automatically. There was no one influencing or directing events; I didnít try
to make things happen, to enter that state or withdraw from it in any
particular way. I was simply keeping with the knowing and watching. Eventually,
the mind withdrew to a state of normality, without stimulating any more doubts.
I continued to contemplate and the mind inclined inwards again. The third time
I had the experience of the whole world completely disintegrating. The earth,
vegetation, trees, mountains, in fact the entire planet appeared as akasa-dhatu (the space element). There were no
people or anything else left at all. At this stage there was complete
emptiness.

The mind
continued to dwell within on itís own peacefully,
without being forced. I donít know how to explain how it happened like that, or
why. Itís difficult to describe the experience or talk about it in a way that
anyone else could understand. Thereís nothing you can compare it with. The last
time the mind stayed in that state far longer and then when its time was up, it
withdrew. Saying that the mind withdrew, doesnít mean that I was controlling it
and making it withdraw Ė it withdrew by itself. I simply watched as it returned
to normal. Who could say what happened on these three occasions? Who could
describe it? Maybe thereís no need to describe it?

What I have been
telling you about here concerns the pure nature of mind as it is experienced in
reality. This hasnít been a theoretical analysis of the mind or mental factors.
There isnít any need for that. The things which really are needed are
confidence in the teachings and the sincerity to keep deepening the practice.
You have to put your life on the line. When the time comes, the whole world
turns upside down. Your view and understanding of reality is completely
transformed. If other people see you at that time, they might think that youíre
insane. If it happened to someone who couldnít maintain their mindfulness and
rationality, they might really go crazy, because after such an experience,
nothing is the same as before. The way you view people in the world is no
longer the same, but you are the only one who has seen things like this. Your whole sense of reality changes. The way you think about
things alters Ė when other people think in one way, you think in another. They
talk about things one way, you another. While they go up that way, you go down
this way. You are no longer the same as other human beings. From then on you
have this experience often and it can last for a long time.

Try it out for
yourselves. If you have this kind of experience in your practice, you wonít
have to go looking for anything far away; just keep observing the mind. At this
level, the mind is at itís boldest and most confident.
This is the power and energy of the mind. Itís much more powerful than youíd
ever expect.

This is the
power of samadhi. At this stage it is still
just the power that the mind derives from samadhi
alone. If samadhireaches this level,
it is at itís deepest and strongest. Itís no longer a
matter of controlling the mind through suppression or momentary periods of
concentration. It has reached itís peak. If you were
to use such concentration as a basis for practicing vipassana,
you would be able o contemplate fluently. From here onwards it could be used in
other ways, such as to develop psychic powers or perform miraculous feats. Different
ascetics and religious practitioners use such concentration in various ways,
such as casting spells and making Holy Water, charms and talismans. Having
reached this point, the mind can be used and developed in many different ways
and each might be good in itís own way, but itís the
kind of good like a good drink: once youíve had it you become intoxicated. That kind of good is ultimately of little use.

The calm mind is
like a resting place for the practitioner. The Buddha rested here as it forms
the base from which to practice vipassana and
to contemplate the truth. At this point you only need to maintain a modest
level of samadhi, your main function is to
direct your attention to observing the conditions of the world around you. You
contemplate steadily the process of cause and effect. Using the clarity of the
mind, you reflect on all the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations
you experience, and how they give rise to different moods: good, bad, pleasant
or unpleasant. Itís as if someone were to climb up a mango tree and shake the
fruit down while you wait underneath to collect up all those that fall. You
reject any mangoes which are rotten, keeping only the good ones. That way, you
donít have to expend much energy, because rather than climbing the tree
yourself, you simply wait to collect the mangoes at the bottom.

This means that
when the mind is calm, all the mind-objects you experience bring you knowledge
and understanding. Because there is awareness, you are no longer creating or
proliferating around these things. Success and failure, good reputation and bad
reputation, praise and criticism, happiness and suffering, all come and go by
themselves. With a clear, still mind that is endowed with insight, itís
interesting to sift through them and sort them out. All these mind-objects
which you experience Ė whether itís the praise, criticism or things that you
hear from other people, or any of the other kinds of happiness and suffering
which you experience Ė become a source of benefit for you. Because someone else
has climbed up the mango tree and is shaking it to make the mangoes fall down
to you. You can gather them up at leisure. You donít have to fear anything Ė
why should you fear anything when itís someone else who is up the tree, shaking
the mangoes down for you? All forms of gain and loss, good reputation and bad
reputation, praise and criticism, happiness and suffering, are like the mangoes
which fall down on you. The calm mind forms the basis for your contemplation,
as you gather them up. With mindfulness, you know which fruits are good and
which are rotten. This practice of reflection, based on the foundation of calm,
is what gives rise to panna and vipassana. Itís not something that has to be created
or concocted Ė if there is genuine insight, then the
practice of vipassana will follow
automatically, without you having to invent names or labels for it. If there is
a small amount of clarity, this gives rise to small vipassana;
if itís deeper insight, it is Ďmediumvipassanaí.
If there is complete knowledge and insight into the truth of the way things are, it is Ďcomplete vipassanaí.
The practice of vipassana is a matter of panna. Itís difficult. You canít do it just like
that. It must proceed from a mind that already has achieved a certain level of
calm. Once this is established, vipassana
develops naturally with the use of panna Ė
itís not something you can force on the mind.

As a result of
his experience, the Buddha taught that the practice has to develop naturally,
according to conditions. Having reached this level, you allow things to develop
according to your accumulated wholesome kamma
and parami. This doesnít mean you stop putting
effort into the practice, but that you continue with the understanding that
whether you progress swiftly or slowly, itís not something you can force. Itís
like planting a tree, it knows by itself the
appropriate pace to grow at. If you crave to get quick results, see that as
delusion. Even if you want it to grow slowly, see that as delusion also. As
with planting the tree, only when you do the practice will you get the result. If
you plant a chilly bush for instance, your duty is simply to dig the hole, plant the seeding, give it water and fertilizer and
protect it from insects. This is your job, your part of it. Then itís a matter
of trust. For the chilly plant, how it grows is itís
own affair Ė itís not your business. You canít go pulling at it to make it grow
faster. Nature doesnít work like that. Your job is just to water it and give it
fertilizer.

When you
practice like this, thereís not much suffering. Whether you reach enlightenment
in this lifetime or the next, is not important. If you have
faith and confidence in the efficacy of the practice, then whether you progress
quickly or slowly, can be left up to your accumulated good kamma,
spiritual qualities and parami. If you
see it this way, you feel at ease with the practice. Itís like when you are
driving a horse and cart, you donít put the cart
before the horse. Before you were putting the cart before the
horse. Or if you were ploughing a field, you
would be walking ahead of the buffalo, in other words, the mind would have been
restless and impatient to get quick results. But once you reflect like this and
are practicing accordingly, you no longer walk ahead of the buffalo, you walk
behind.

So, with the
chilly plant you bring water and fertilizer and chase away any ants or termites
that come. Just that much is enough for it to grow into a beautiful bush by
itself. Once the plant is flourishing, itís not your business to try and force
it to flower right away. Donít practice that way. Itís just creating suffering
for no reason. The chilly plant grows according to itís
own nature. Once it flowers, donít try to force it to produce seeds right away.
It wonít work and youíll just suffer. Thatís really suffering. When you
understand this, it means you know your own part in the practice and you know
the part of the mind-objects and defilements. Each has itís
own separate part to play. The mind knows itís role
and the work it has to do. As long as the mind doesnít understand what itís job is, it will always try and force the chilly plant
to grow up, flower and produce chilly peppers, all in the same day. That is
nothing other than samudayaĖ the Noble
Truth of the Cause of Suffering.

If you have had
insight into this, it means you know when the mind is deluded and goes off.
Once you know the correct way to practice, you can let go and allow things to
follow naturally in accordance with your accumulated wholesome kamma, spiritual qualities and parami. You simply keep practicing without
having to worry about how long it will take. You donít have to worry whether it
will take one hundred or one thousand lives before you get enlightened.
Whichever life it will be, it doesnít really matter, you just continue
practicing at whatever pace you can be at ease with.

Once the mind
has entered the stream it cannot turn back. It has gone beyond even the
smallest evil action. The Buddha taught that the mind of the sotapanna(stream-enterer) has inclined or
entered into the stream of Dhamma and cannot return.
Those who have practiced to this point can no longer fall back and be born into
the apaya realms or the hell realms again. How
could they possibly fall back when, having clearly seen the harm and danger,
they have already cut off the roots of all unwholesome kamma.
They are no longer able to commit unwholesome acts of body and speech. Once
they have refrained from committing unwholesome acts of body and speech, how
can they possibly fall into apaya realms or
the hell realms? Their minds have entered the stream. Once the mind has entered
the stream through meditation, you know your duty and the work you have to do.
You know the path of practice and how it progresses. You know when to exert and
when to relax in the practice. You know the body and you know the mind. You
know materiality and mentality. Those things which should be let go of and
abandoned, you let go of and abandon them, without getting caught in doubt and
uncertainty.

In the past, I
didnít use such a great amount of detailed knowledge and refined theory in my
practice. The important thing was to gain clear understanding and refine the
practice within the mind itself. If I looked at my own or anyone elseís
physical form and found there was attraction to it, I would seek out the cause
for that attraction. I contemplated the body and analyzed it into itís component parts: kesa
(hair of the head), loma(hair of the
body), nakha (nails), danta
(teeth), taco (skin) and so on. The Buddha taught to contemplate the
different parts of the body, over and over again.

Separate them,
pull them apart, peel the skin off and incinerate it all. Keep meditating like
this, until the mind is still, firm and unwavering in its meditation on the
unattractiveness of the body. When you are walking on alms round, for instance,
and see other monks or lay people ahead, visualize them as corpses, tottering
along the road in front of you. As you walk, keep putting effort into this
practice, taking the mind deeper and deeper into the contemplation on the
impermanence of the body. If you see a young woman and are attracted by her,
contemplate the image of a corpse which is rotten and putrid from the process
of decomposition. Contemplate like this on every occasion, so that the mind
maintains a sense of distance, not becoming infatuated with that
attractiveness. If you practice in this way, the attractiveness will not last
long, because you see the truth very clearly, no longer doubting the truth that
the body is really something which is rotting and decomposing.

Use this kind of
reflection until the perception of unattractiveness becomes clearly fixed in
the mind, and it goes beyond doubt. Wherever you go it
wonít be wasted. You must really determine to do this practice to the point
where whenever you see someone, itís exactly the same as if you were actually
looking at a corpse. When you see a woman, you see her as a corpse; when you
see a man you see him as a corpse; and you see yourself as a corpse in just the
same way. In the end, everybody becomes a corpse. You have to put as much
effort into this contemplation as you can. Train yourself until it becomes part
of the mind. Itís actually quite enjoyable Ė if you really do it. But if you
just become absorbed in reading lots of books, itís difficult to get results.
You have to practice sincerely and with real determination so that the kammatthanabecomes established as an
integral part of the mind.

Studying the Abhidhammacan be beneficial, but you have to
do it without getting attached to the books. The correct way to study is to
make it clear in the mind that you are studying for the realization of truth
and to transcend suffering. These days there are many different teachers of vipassana and many different methods to choose from,
but actually, the practice ofvipassana isnít
such an easy thing to do. You canít go and do it just like that,
it has to develop out of a strong foundation in sila.
Try it out. Moral discipline, training rules and guidelines for behavior are a
necessary part of the practice Ė if your actions and speech are untrained and
undisciplined, itís like skipping over part of magga
and you wonít meet with success. Some people say you donít need to practice samatha, you can go straight into vipassana, but people who speak like that tend to be
lazy and want to get results without expending any effort. They say that keeping
sila isnít important to the practice, but
really, practicing sila in itself is already
quite difficult and not something you can do casually. If you were to skip the sila, then of course the whole practice would seem
comfortable and convenient. It would be nice if whenever the practice involved
a bit of difficulty you could just skip over it Ė everybody likes to avoid the
difficult bits.

There was once a
monk who came here and asked permission to stay with me, saying that he was
interested in the practice. He inquired about the monastic regulations and
discipline here, so I explained that in this monastery we practice according to
the Vinaya (Code of Discipline) and that the
monks canít keep personal funds of money or stores of requisites. He said that
he practiced non-attachment. I said that I didnít know how he practiced or what
he meant by that. Then he asked whether he could use money, if he didnít attach
or giving any special importance to it. I said he could use it, in the same way
as he could use any salt which he could find that wasnít salty. The monk was
really just trying to impress people with the way he talked, but actually, he
was too lazy to bother practicing with what he saw as lots of trifling and
unnecessarily meticulous rules which to him just made life difficult. If ever
he could find some salt which didnít taste salty, I would be ready to believe
him. If it really wasnít salty, he should bring a whole basket full and try
eating it! Could it really not be salty? Non-attachment is not something which
can be experienced simply through talking about it or trying to guess what itís
like. Itís not like that. Having displayed his views on the practice in that
way, it became clear that the monk would be unable to live here, so he left and
went on his own way.

You have to keep
putting forth effort into the practice of silaand the various dhutanga practices. Itís
not different for lay people either. Even if you are living at home, at the
very least keep the five precepts. Try to compose and discipline your speech
and actions. Keep putting forth your best effort, and your practice will
gradually progress.

Donít give up
the practice of samatha just because you have
tried it a few times and found that the mind doesnít get calm. Thatís the wrong
way to go about it. You really have to train yourself over a long period of
time. Why does it have to take so long? Think about it. How many years have you
let pass by without practicing? When thoughts arise pulling the mind in one
direction, you rush after them, when they start pulling it in another, you
still rush after them with your mental proliferation. If you are going to try
and stop the flow of the mind and make it stay still, right there in the
present moment, a couple of months is just not long enough. Contemplate this. Think
about what it might take to have a mind which is at peace with the flow of the
different issues and events which affect it and is at peace with the
mind-objects it experiences. When you first start to practice, the mind has so little
steadiness that as soon as it comes into contact with a mind-object, it gets
agitated and confused. Why does it get agitated? Because itís
under the influence of tanha. You donít
want it to think. You donít want it to experience any mind-objects. This not
wanting is a form of craving. Itís vibhava-tanha(craving for non-existence). The more you desire not to experience any
agitation and confusion, the more you encourage and usher it in. ĎI donít want
this impingement, why does it come? I donít want the mind to be agitated, why
is it like this?í Thatís it Ė thereís craving for the mind to be in a peaceful
state. Itís because you donít know your own mind. Thatís all. You persist in
getting caught up with the mind and its craving, and yet it takes an incredibly
long time before you realize where you are going wrong. When you think about it
clearly, you can see that all this distraction and agitation comes because you
tell it to come! There is craving for it to be otherwise; there is craving for
it to be peaceful; there is craving for the mind not to be restless and
agitated. Thatí the point Ė itís all craving, the whole mass
of it.

Well, never
mind! Just get on with your own practice. Whenever you experience a
mind-object, contemplate it. Throw it into one of the three Ďpitsí of aniccam, dukkham, anatta in your meditation and reflect on it. Generally,
when we experience a mind-object it stimulates thinking. The thinking is in
reaction to the experience of the mind-object. The nature of ordinary thinking
and panna is very different. The nature of
ordinary thinking is to carry on without stopping. The mind-objects you
experience lead you off in different directions and your thoughts just follow
along. The nature of panna is to stop the
proliferation, to still the mind, so that it doesnít go anywhere. You are
simply the knower and receiver of things. As you experience different
mind-objects, which in turn give rise to different moods, you maintain
awareness of the process and ultimately, you can see that all the thinking and
proliferating, worrying and judging, is entirely devoid of any real substance
or self. It is all aniccam, dukkham and anatta.
The way to practice, is to cut off all the
proliferation right at its base and see that it all comes under the headings of
the three characteristics. As a result it will weaken and lose its power. Next
time when you are sitting in meditation and it comes up, or whenever you
experience agitation like that you contemplate it, you keep observing and
checking the mind.

You can compare
it with looking after water buffalo. There is a buffalo, its owner and some
rice plants. Now normally, buffaloes like to eat rice plants; rice plants are
buffalo food. Your mind is like the buffalo, the mind-objects which you
experience are like the rice plants. That part of the mind
which is Ďthat which knowsí is like the owner of the buffalo. The
practice isnít really any different from this. Consider it. What do you do when
you are looking after a water buffalo? You let it wander freely, but try to
keep an eye on it the whole time. If it walks too near the rice plants, you
shout a warning and when the buffalo hears, it should stop and come back.
However, you canít be careless. If itís stubborn and doesnít take heed of your
warnings you have to take a stick and give it a good whack, then it wonít dare
to go anywhere near the rice plants. But donít get caught taking a siesta. If
you canít resist taking a nap, the rice plants will be finished for sure.

Practice is
similar. When you are watching your mind, itís that which knowsí that actually
does the watching. ĎThose who watch over their minds will free themselves from
Maraísí trap.í But itís puzzling: the mind is the same mind. Itís knowing of
the state of mind; knowing as the mind experiences mind-objects. This aspect of
the mind which knows is what the Buddha referred to as Ďthat which knowsí. The
knowing is the one who watches over the mind. It is from the knowing that pannaarises. The mind manifests as thinking
and ideas. If it meets a mind-object, it will stop off and spend some time with
it. If it meets another object then it will spend some time with that, just
like that buffalo stopping off to nibble some rice plants. Wherever it wanders
to, you have to keep an eye on it the whole time, ensuring that it wonít slip
away from your sight. If it strays near the rice plants and doesnít take any
notice when you shout a warning, you must show it the stick right away, with no
messing about. To train it, you have to give it a hard time and make it go
against the flow of itís desires.

Training the
mind is the same. Normally, when it contacts a mind-object, the mind will
immediately grab hold of it. As it grabs hold of mind-objects, Ďthat which
knowsí has to teach it. Using wise reflection, you have to train the mind to
contemplate each object in the light of whether it is wholesome or unwholesome.
When you experience other mind-objects, because you see them as desirable, your
mind rushes to grasp at them. So that which knowsí has to teach it over and
over again, using wise reflection, until it is able to cast them aside. This is
how you can develop the calmness of the mind. You will come to see that
whatever you grasp hold of is inherently undesirable. The result is that the
mind stops right there without any further proliferation. It loses any desire
to pursue such objects, because it has come under a constant barrage of insults
and criticism. You really have to give it a hard time. You have to torture it
until the words penetrate to your very heart. That is the way to train the
mind.

Ever since I
went into the forest to practice, I trained in that way. Whenever I teach the
monastic community, I teach that way Ė because I want you to see the truth. I
donít want you just to see whatís in the books. I want you to see for
yourselves, in your own minds, whether you have been liberated from your
defiled thoughts or not. Once you have been liberated, you know. As long as you
have still not freed yourself, you must use wise reflection to penetrate and
understand the truth. If you really have insight into the true nature of
thoughts, you will automatically transcend them. If later on something else
comes up and you get stuck on that, you must reflect on that and as long as you
havenít transcend it, you canít give up, otherwise there can be no progress.
You must keep working with the problem over and over again and not let the mind
get away. This is the way I practice with my own mind. The Buddha taught: paccatamveditabbovinnuhiĖ the wise ones are those who know for
themselves. It means that you have to do the practice yourself and gain insight
from your own experience. You must know and understand this very self.

If you have
confidence in and trust yourself, you can feel at ease. Both when people are
criticizing you, and when they are praising you, your mind remains at ease.
Whatever they say about you, you remain calm and untroubled. Why can you stay
so relaxed? Because you know yourself. If other people
praise you when you are actually worthy of criticism, are you really going to
believe what they say? No you donít simply believe what other people say, you do your own practice and judge things for yourself.
When people who have no foundation in practice get praised, it puts them in a
good mood. They get intoxicated with it. Likewise, when you receive criticism,
you have to look inwards and reflect for yourself. It might not be true. Maybe
they say you are wrong, but actually, they are mistaken and you arenít really
at fault at all. If so, thereís no need to get angry with them, because they
arenít speaking according to the truth. On the other hand, if what they say is
the truth and you really are wrong, then again thereís no reason to be angry
with them. If you can reflect this way, you can feel completely at ease,
because you are seeing everything as Dhamma, rather
than blindly reacting to your opinions and preferences. This is the way I
practice. Itís the shortest most direct way to practice. Even if you were to
come and try to argue with me about theories of the Dhammaor Abhidhamma, I wouldnít join in. Rather
than argue, I would just give you reasoned reflection.

The important
thing is to understand the Buddhaís teaching that the heart of practice is
letting go. But itís letting go with awareness, not letting go without
awareness, like buffaloes and cows who donít pay much
attention to anything. Thatís not the right way. You let go because you have
insight into the world of conventions and concepts and you have insight into
non-attachment.

The Buddha taught
that in the beginning you should practice a lot, cultivate a lot and attach a
lot. You should attach to the Buddha, Dhamma,
Sanghaas firmly as you
can. He taught to begin practice in this way. Attach with sincerity and
determination and keep attaching. Itís similar to his teaching on not envying
others. He said that when making a living people should depend on the fruits of
their own labors. You should support yourself from your own stock of cows and
buffaloes, and from your own land and fields Ė thereís no unwholesome kamma to be made when you do this. If you earn a
living by taking other peoples property, you make bad kamma.
Many people heard this teaching and believed it, so they made their living
working their own property to itís full extent. But of
course this involved some difficulty and suffering. There was suffering because
they had to work with their own sweat on their own property. So then they went
to the Buddha and recounted their tale of suffering, complaining that if you
own anything itís just a source of complications and unhappiness. Previously,
he taught them that their difficulties and hassles arose from competitiveness,
trying to acquire things which really belonged to other people. So they
understood that if they followed the teaching that they should make a living
from their own resources rather than exploiting those of others, then all their
problems would be solved. However, when they tried doing this, they found that
in fact their hassles and difficulties still existed. So then the Buddha shifted his teaching to a different
level. He said that in fact, if you attach to and give undue importance to
things of any kind, is doesnít matter whose they are, suffering is the result.
If you touch fire in someone elseís house itís hot; if you touch fire in your
house itís also hot Ė that is the nature of attachment.

The Buddha could only teach according to the level of understanding and
wisdom of each individual, because it was like having to teach crazy people.
Thatís the way you teach crazy people Ė sometimes itís appropriate to give them
an electric shock, so you do it. As long as peoples
minds are at such a coarse level, they donít have the mindfulness or wisdom to
understand the teaching. Having finished his own practice, the Buddha got to grips
with our problems and would come up with various skilful means or teach people
according to their circumstances.

In my own practice I tried every possible means of reflection and
investigation to gain insight, I staked my whole life on the practice, because
I had confidence in the Buddhist teaching that magga,
phala and nibbana
(enlightenment) actually exist. These things actually do exist, just as it says
in the teaching, and they actually do arise through good practice. They arise
from a mind that is bold enough to give the defilements a hard time; bold
enough to reflect and train; bold enough to fundamentally change; bold enough
to do the practice.

What does doing the practice mean? It means going against the tendencies
of your mind. When your mind starts thinking this way, the Buddha has it go
that way; it starts thinking that way, he has it go this way. Why did the
Buddha teach about going against the grain? Because in the
past, for so long, your mind has been covered with defilement. He taught
that the mind is unreliable because itís still untrained and has not yet been
transformed by the Dhamma. Because of this, he said
you canít trust it. As long as it hasnít merged with sila
and Dhamma Ė because itís still not pure and lacks
clear insight Ė how can you trust it? He taught not to rely on the
unenlightened mind because itís defiled. At first itís the servant of the
defilements, but over time it gradually gets polluted and becomes defilement
itself. So, he taught not to trust the mind.

Look at all our monastic regulations and training guidelines, they all
make you go against the grain. When you go against the grain there is
suffering. Of course, as soon as there is some suffering, you complain that the
practice is too difficult and troublesome. You say you canít do it, but the
Buddha didnít think that way. He saw that if there is suffering, itís a sign
that you are practicing in the correct way. But you understand that you are
practicing in the wrong way and that this is the cause of all the difficulty
and hardship. When you begin practice and start to experience some suffering,
you assume that you must be doing something wrong. Everyone wants to feel good,
but theyíre not usually concerned about whether itís the right way or wrong way
to practice. As soon as you start going against the kilesa
and the stream of tanha, it brings up
suffering and you want to stop because you think you must be doing something
wrong. But the Buddha taught that actually you are practicing correctly. Having
stimulated the kilesa they get heated and
stirred up, but you can misunderstand and think that it is you who have been stirred
up.

The Buddha said itís the kilesa that get stirred up. Itís because you donít
like going against the defilements that itís difficult to progress in the
practice Ė you donít reflect on things. In general you tend to get stuck in one
of the two extremes of kamasukhallikanuyoga
(sensual indulgence) or attakilamathanuyoga
(self-torture). Sensual indulgence means you want to follow all your mindís
desires: whatever you want to do, you do it. You want to follow your craving,
which means you want to sit comfortably, sleep as much as you want and so on.
Whatever you do, you want to be comfortable Ė thatís the nature of sensual
indulgence. If you are attached to pleasant feelings how can you progress in
the practice?

If you arenít indulging in sensuality or are unable to obtain
satisfaction through attaching to pleasant feelings, then you tend towards the
other extreme of aversion, becoming angry and dissatisfied and then suffering
because of it. That is the extreme of self-torture. But this is not the way of
one who is training to be peaceful and aloof from the defilements.

The Buddha taught not to follow these two extreme ways. He taught that
when you experience pleasant feelings, you should just take note of them with
awareness. If you indulge in anger or hatred, you arenít walking in the
footsteps of the Buddha. Itís following the way of ordinary unenlightened
beings, not the way of the samana. One who is
peaceful no longer moves in that direction, they walk the middle way. This is samma-patibada (right practice), which means the
extreme of sensual indulgence is off to your left and the extreme of
self-torture is off to your right.

So if you take up the life of a practicing monastic, you should follow
the middle way. That means you donít pay too much attention to happiness and
suffering Ė you let them go. But at the same time you canít avoid feeling
pushed around by these two extremes: one moment you are struck from this side,
another moment pulled from that side. Itís like being the clapper of a bell.
They hit you from this direction and you swing in that one, back and forth,
over and over. It is these two things which push you around. In his first teaching,
the Buddha talked about these two extremes because this is where attachment has
taken root. Half the time, desire for pleasant things hits you from this side
and the rest of the time, dissatisfaction and suffering hit you from the other
side. It is just these two things which bully us and push us around the whole
time.

Walking the middle way means you let go of both the pleasant and the
suffering. To practice correctly Ė sammapatipada Ė you must follow the middle way. To walk the
middle way, following the path of the Buddha, is difficult and involves some
suffering. If you donít find satisfaction when your mind craves pleasant
feelings, itís just suffering. It seems that all that exists is just these two
extremes of happiness and suffering and as long as you still believe in these
things, youílltend to attach to them and get involved with them. It means that
when you become angry with someone, you immediately start looking for a piece
of wood to go and hit them with Ė thereís no patience and endurance. If you
like someone, then you like to spend your whole time
with them, getting lost completely. Thatís right isnít it? You always tend
towards these two ends, the middle way never gets a
look in. But the Buddha didnít teach us to follow the extremes,
He said that we should gradually let them go. This is the way of sammapatipada Ė
the way out of becoming and birth. Itís the way without becoming or birth,
without happiness or sadness and without good or bad.

As ordinary human beings who are still subject to becoming, each time you
fall into this process of becoming, you fail to see that middle point of
balance. You go rushing by, on and on, as if youíre falling headlong and you
end up attaching to the extreme of happiness. If you donít get what you want,
you still meet suffering from the other direction, missing the mid point time
again. Rushing back and forth, you donít come to rest at that point in the
middle which is free from becoming and birth. Why? Ė itís
because you donít like it. Getting tangled in becoming is like falling into a
realm where you get savaged by ferocious dogs, and then, though you try
climbing upwards to get away, your head gets pecked and torn apart by the iron
beaks of demonic vultures and crows. Itís like being caught into a never ending
hell-realm. Thatís what the true nature of becoming is like.

So the place where there is no becoming and birth, humans donít really
notice. The unenlightened mind fails to see it and consequently just passes
back and forth over it. Sammapatipada is the middle way which the Buddha followed
until he was liberated from becoming and birth. It is abayakatadhamma Ė neither good nor bad Ė because the mind
has let everything go. This is the way of the samana.
One who doesnít follow this way cannot be a true samana,
because they wonít experience true inner peace. Why is that? Because they are
still involved in becoming and birth; they are still caught up in the cycle of
birth and death. But the middle way is beyond birth and death, high and low,
happiness and suffering, good and bad. It is the straight way and the way of
calm and restraint. It is a calm that lies beyond happiness and suffering, good
moods and bad moods. This is the nature of the practice. If your heart has
experienced this true peace, it means you are able to stop. You are able to
stop asking questions. Thereís no longer any need to ask anybody. This is why
the Buddha taught that the Dhamma is paccatamveditabbovinnuhi Ė itís something which each individual has to
know clearly for themselves. You see how it all
accords exactly with what the Buddha taught and then youíve no need to ask
anybody else.

So I have talked briefly about my own experience and practice: I didnít
have so much external knowledge or study the scriptures that much. By
experimenting and investigating. I learned from my own mind in a natural way.
Whenever liking arose, I observed it and watched where it led the mind. All it
does is drag you towards suffering. So what you do is keep practicing with your
own mind until you gradually develop awareness and understandingÖ until you see
the Dhamma for yourself. But you must be utterly
sincere and really determine your heart and mind to do it.

If you truly want to practice, you must make a determined effort not to
proliferate or think too much. If you start meditating with craving to have a
certain kind of experience or gain some kind of state, then itís better to
stop. When you experience some calm, if you start thinking, ĎIs this it?í or
ĎHave I attained that?í you should take a break and gather up all that
theoretical knowledge and just put it away in a box somewhere. Donít bring it
up for discussion. The kind of knowledge which arises during meditation is not
of that order. Itís a completely new kind. When you experience some genuine
insight, itís not the same as the theory. For instance, when you write the word
Ďgreedí down on paper, itís not the same as having the experience of greed in
the mind. This applies to anger in just the same way; the written word is one
thing, but when you actually experience it in the mind, youíve got no time to
read anything Ė you experience it right there in the mind. It is very important
to understand this.

The written theory is correct, but the Dhamma
must really be opanayiko

(leading inwards). You must internalize it. If you donít
internalize it, you wonít really gain understanding or insight. You wonít
experience the truth for yourself. I was the same in my youth. I didnít study
all the time, though I had taken the first three levels of exams on the theory
of Dhamma-Vinaya. I had the chance to go and
hear different teachers talking about their meditation practice, but at first I
was heedless and didnít know how to listen properly. I didnít understand the
way the meditation masters expressed themselves when they talked about the
practice. They spoke directly from their personal experience, describing how
they came to see the Dhamma from within their own
minds rather from the books. Later on, after I had done more of the practice
for myself, I began to see the truth in the same way as described by those
teachers. I was able to understand for myself, from within my own mind, what
they had been teaching. Eventually, after many years of practice, I realized
that all that knowledge which they had imparted in their teaching came from
what they had seen and directly experienced for themselves Ė they didnít just
speak from the books. If you follow the path of practice which they described,
you will experience the Dhamma to just the same
profundity. I concluded that this was the right way to practice. There might
well be other ways to practice, but just this much was enough for me, and I
stuck to it.

You must keep
putting effort into the practice. In the beginning the important thing is to be
doing it. Whether the mind is actually peaceful or not, it doesnít matter Ė you
just have to accept it the way it is. You are concerned with creating wholesome
causes. If you are diligent in the practice, you donít need to worry about what
the results will be like. You shouldnít be afraid that you wonít gain any
results from your practice. Worrying like that just prevents the mind from
becoming peaceful. Persevere with it. Of course, if you donít do the practice
then who will gain anything? Who will realize the Dhamma?
Only the one who seeks will realize the Dhamma. It is
the one who satisfies his hunger, not the one who reads the menu. Each and
every mood is lying to you; if you are aware of it happening just ten times,
thatís better than nothing. The same old person keeps lying about the same old
things. If you are simply aware of what goes on thatís already good, because it
takes so long before you even become aware of the truth. The defilements are
trying to delude you all the time.

Practice means
to establish sila, samadhi
and panna in your mind. Recollect the
qualities of the Triple Gem Ė the Buddha, Dhamma,
Sangha Ė and let go of
everything else. As you practice right here, you are already creating the
causes and conditions for enlightenment in this very lifetime. Be honest,
sincere and keep doing it.

The nature of
the practice is such that even if you are sitting on a chair, you can still fix
attention on a meditation object. At first you donít have to concentrate on
many different things, it is enough just to focus on one simple object, such as
the breath, or the recitation of a mantra like Buddho,
Dhammo or Sangho used in
conjunction with the breath. When you fix attention on the breath, make a clear
mental determination that you are not going to force it in any way. If you get
disturbed by the breathing, itís a sign that you still arenít practicing in the
right way. If you are not at ease with the breath then it will always seem either too short or too long, too gentle or too forceful and
it wonít feel comfortable. But once you do feel at ease with it and there is
awareness of each in-breath and out-breath, youíve got it right. This indicates
you are practicing in the correct way. If itís not yet right, you are still
deluded then stop the meditation and re-establish mindfulness on the breathing.
In the course of the meditation, if the desire arises to experience different
things, or you actually do start to experience different psychic phenomena,
such as bright lights or visions of celestial palaces or other similar things,
donít be afraid. Be mindful of such experiences and keep doing the meditation.
Sometimes you might be meditating and the sensation of the breath totally
disappears. It might truly seem to have vanished making you afraid, itís only
your thoughts that have vanished, the breath is still there, but is simply
operating on a much more refined level than normal. Once an appropriate period
of time has elapsed, the sensation of the breathing will return by itself.

In the beginning
you have to practice making the mind calm in this way. Whenever you sit down to
meditate Ė whether on a seat somewhere, or in a car or a boat Ė you should be
able to calm the mind right away by focusing attention on your meditation
object. You have to practice to the point where, if you get on a train to
travel somewhere, you should be able to sit down and enter a state of calm,
almost immediately. If you have trained yourself this thoroughly, you will be
able to meditate anywhere. It means you already have some insight into the path
of practice and can use this as a basis for contemplating mind-objects: sights,
sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations and ideas. Be aware of all the
liking and disliking which you experience and donít make anything out of such
mental-states. If you experience a pleasant object, know it as pleasant; if you
experience an unpleasant one, know it as unpleasant. These are part of
conditioned reality. Whether theyíre good, bad or whatever, theyíre all have
the same characteristics, theyíre all aniccam,
dukkhamandanatta. Things that are uncertain,
so donít attach or cling to them. This is a teaching or mantra that you should
keep repeating to yourself. If you keep seeing these three characteristics, panna will arise by itself. The heart of vipassana meditation is to throw each mind-object
which you experience into these three Ďpitsí of aniccam,
dukkham and anatta.
Whatever it is, whether good, bad or worse, throw it into these three pits and
very soon you will start to gain knowledge and insight. Panna
will begin to arise in small amounts, which is what meditation is all about.
Keep putting a consistent effort into it. Youíve been keeping the five precepts
for many years now, so itís time to really put some effort into the meditation.
You have to gain insight into the truth of things so that you can let go, give
things up and be peaceful.

Iím not very
good at having lengthy discussions about the Dhamma.
Itís difficult to put it all into words. If anyone wants to know how I
practice, they should come and live here. If they stay here long enough, they
will get to know. In the past Iíve gone around on foot to study and practice
with different teachers. I didnít go to make other people listen to me. I went
to listen to the various Masters teach the Dhamma, I
didnít try to teach them. Whatever they taught I listened. I didnít go in for
discussion Ė I didnít see that there was any need for a lot of discussion. That which was important and worth taking interest in, involved
renunciation and letting go. The whole purpose of the practice is for
giving up and letting things go. Ultimately, itís fruitless doing a great
amount of formal study. Day by day you are getting older and older and if all
you do is study the words, itís like chasing a mirage Ė you never really get
hold of the real thing. There are many styles and methods of practice and Iím
not critical of them, as long as you understand what the true meaning and
purpose of the practice is. If for instance, practitioners are not keeping the Vinaya strictly, although they might not necessarily
be going that wrong, I would say that they would find it impossible to attain
ultimate success in the practice. Itís like trying to bypass magga or skipping over sila,
samadhi and panna.
Some people tell you not to get attached to samatha, that you
shouldnít bother with it and just go straight on to vipassana,
but from my experience if you try to skip over samatha
and just do vipassana, it wonít lead to
success.

Donít disregard
the way of practice and the foundation which has been left for us by Tan Acharn Sow, Tan AcharnMun, Tan AcharnTongrut and Tan AcharnChaoKhunUpali.
If you train yourself following in the footsteps of these Masters, itís the
most direct way to enlightenment, because they actually realized the Dhamma for themselves. They didnít bypass the sila,
they tried to be scrupulous and impeccable with it. Their disciples had the
utmost respect both for the teacher and the monastery regulations and ways of
practice. If the teacher told you to do something, you did it. If he said you
were doing something wrong and you should stop, you stopped. These teachers
taught to practice with determination and sincerity until you actually saw and
experienced results in your own mind. As a result, the disciples of the great
forest Masters had the deepest respect for and were somewhat in awe of the
teacher, because it was through following in his footsteps that they came to
see and understand the Dhamma.

So, try it out
in the way I have suggested. If you do the practice, you will see and
experience the results for yourself. If you really practice and investigate the
truth there is no reason why you shouldnít experience them in just the way Iíve
described. I say that if you are practicing in the right way Ė which means giving
up, speaking little, letting go of views and conceit Ė the kilesa
will be unable to gain a foothold in the mind. You are able to listen
peacefully to those who speak what is not true, just as you are able to listen
to those who speak the truth, because you know how to contemplate the truth for
yourself. I say this is possible, if you really put effort into the practice.
But itís not often that the scholars actually come and do the practice, there
are still too few of them that do. I feel a sense of regret that many of my
fellow Buddhists are like this and I consistently try to encourage them to get
down to the practice and start contemplating.

That those of
you who have previously trained as scholars have managed to come here and
practice is admirable; you have your own good qualities which you can offer to
the community, In most of the village monasteries around here, it is the study
of the scriptures and the theory which is emphasized, but ultimately, they are
studying that which just goes on and on endless, unbroken flow. They never manage
actually to cut through the flow and finish. They only study that which is santati and sandhi,
or that which gives rise to continued birth. If you can halt the mental
momentum, you can really use your theoretical knowledge as a basis for research
and investigation into the cause of suffering. Because the true nature of the
mind doesnít deviate from what you have learnt in the books, it goes in
accordance with what you have studied. But if you study without ever practicing,
you will never really know. Once you have practiced, you can gain a deep and
profound knowledge, actually seeing and understanding clearly in the mind those
things which you have studied in the books. The important thing is to start
practicing.

So go and live
in a small hut in the forest, make the effort to train yourself and experiment
with the teaching. Itís better than just studying the theory. Practice
discussing the Dhamma inwardly with yourself, living in seclusion and observing your heart and mind.
When the mind is still, itís in a state of normality. When it moves out from
that state of normality, when different thoughts and imagination arise, that is
sankhara. These sankharas
will continue to condition the mind, so be careful and maintain awareness of
them. Once the mind moves out from the state of normality, it will no longer be
sammapatipada.
It will either go in the direction of kamasukhallikhanuyoga
or attakilamathanuyoga. These two tendencies
are cittasankhara
conditioning the mind. If the conditioning is wholesome, the mind takes on
wholesome characteristics; if the conditioning is unwholesome, it takes on
unwholesome ones. The process takes place in the mind. If you are practicing
awareness, closely observing the mind, itís actually very interesting. I would
be happy to talk about this one topic the whole day through.

Once you are
aware of the movements of the mind, you can see the conditioning process. The
mind has been raised and trained by the defilements. I see it as being like a
central place. These things which we call cetasika(mental factors), are like visitors which come to stay at this place.
Sometimes this ďpersonĒ comes to visit, sometimes that
ďpersonĒ comes to visit and sometimes someone else. They all come to stay at
this one spot. All these ďvisitorsĒ which arise out of the mind, we call mental
factors.

The way to
practice is to awaken the mind and make it ďthat which knowsĒ, waiting and
watching over itself. Whenever a visitor approaches, you must wave your hand to
forbid them from coming in. Where could they sit, when the whole day long you
occupy the only seat available, your awareness being right in the centre,
receiving all the visitors who come? This is what ďBuddhoĒ
means: a firm and unshakeable awareness. If you can sustain this awareness, it
will guard the mind. You simply sit down and establish awareness on this one
spot, because this is where all the visitors have come to, right from the time
you were just a baby throughout you entire life until the present. So you must
get to know them all and this is how. You simply sustain ďBuddhoĒ.
All this visitors will tend to want to fashion and concoct the mind in various
ways, conditioning your experience accordingly. These conditioned states which
are produced by the actions of the visitors, are called mental factors.
Whatever their nature might be or wherever they might lead the mind is not the
important thing. Your job is to get to know these visitors who drop in.
Whenever visitors arrive they will find that there is only one chair available
and as long as you occupy it, they will have nowhere to sit down. They come
with the intention of speaking with you, but there is nowhere for them to
settle down. However many times these visitors come, they keep meeting the same
person sitting in the same seat receiving guests, and that person never seems
to go. How many times will they keep coming back? All you have to do is sit
there receiving them and you will come to know them all. Everything that you
have ever experienced since you first had knowledge of the world,
will come to visit right at that place. You only have to know this much.

If you watch and
contemplate the Dhamma just at this one place, you
will be able to develop insight which is capable of penetrating everything. This
is where you watch, investigate and contemplate for yourself.

This is just
talking about Dhammapractice,
I canít talk about much else. This is the way I talk about the Dhamma, but in the end itís still just talking about the
practice. Whatís appropriate now is actually to do the practice. When you start
doing it, you will meet with various experiences in the course of the practice.
There are, of course, given directions to follow telling you where to go and
what to doÖif this happens, do that and so on, but often when you proceed and
it doesnít work out well, you have to reflect and adjust your approach. You may
have to travel a long way to come across a signpost, before you realize which is the right way to go. It comes down to the fact that you
learn through making mistakes and through working with your experience until
you become established in the right way of practice and you are beyond doubt.
If you still havenít found the correct way to practice, youíre bound to meet
with some doubt or obstruction, so then you must keep prodding and poking right
at the spot. Once you investigate, consider it from various angles, talk it
through with yourself, this will really make an impression on the mind and
youíll know what to do. If you really get stuck, you can consult the teacher,
who has plenty of experience in confronting obstacles whilst training the mind
and heíll be able to advise on the way to practice
with them and get beyond them. Having access to a teacher can
be immensely valuable Ė someone whoís been there, who knows the terrain.
Someone you can take your confusion to, someone you can discuss your practice
with.

Consider
practicing with mind-objects such as sound. There is hearing and there is sound
Ė you can be aware of the sound without making anything out of it. Make use of
natural phenomena like this to contemplate the truth, until the mind is able to
separate the mind from the object. This distinction comes to be discernible
because the mind doesnít go out and get involved with things. When the ear hears a sound, watch to see whether the mind gets
tangled up or carried away with it. Is it disturbed? If you can know and see just this
much, youíll be able to hear sounds without being disturbed by them. This is
the cultivation and establishment of mindfulness right here, close at hand.
Itís not something you have to go elsewhere to do. Even if you want to avoid
sound, you canít really get away from it. Itís only really possible to ďget
awayĒ from sounds by practicing. That means training the mind until it is firm
enough in the practice of mindfulness to be able to let go when there is sense
contact. There is still hearing, but at the same time you let the object go. In
this case when there is mindfulness, this letting go is natural. You let it be
as it is. You donít have to struggle to separate the mind from the object, the
separation is quite obvious to you because you are practicing abandoning,
letting go. Even if you felt inclined to follow the sound, the mind wouldnít go
after it.

Once you are fully
mindful of forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects and thoughts, you
will see them clearly as they truly are in reality, with the internal eye of
wisdom. They are dominated by the three universal characteristics of annicam, dukkham
and anatta. Whenever you hear a sound, for
instance, there will be immediate insight into the three characteristics in the
process of having that experience. Itís like you no longer hear it, you donít
hear it in the usual way, because you see that the mind is one thing, the
object is another. But that doesnít mean the mind is no longer functioning.
Mindfulness is monitoring and watching over the mind at all times. If youíre
able to develop your practice to this level, it will mean wherever you are or
whatever you are doing, you will be engaged in investigating the Dhamma. This is dhamma-vicaya
or one of the essential factors of enlightenment. If this factor is present in the
mind, it means that there will be intensive and sustained consideration and
reflection on the Dhamma going on at all times, and
this will gradually loosen and undo your attachment to body, feelings,
perceptions, thoughts and consciousness. Nothing will be able to disturb or
intrude upon the mind when it is absorbed in its work of reflection.

For one who is
experienced and has developed concentration, this process of reflection and
investigation take place automatically in the mind Ė itís not something you
have to think about or create. The mind will immediately be adept in
contemplation in whatever direction you point it. If you are practicing in this
way, one additional thing that occurs is that once you have established
mindfulness before you got to sleep, you no longer habitually snore, talk in
your sleep, gnash your teeth or writhe about. If meditation is established in
the mind, all of that disappears. Even if you sleep deeply, when you awaken you
will feel like you havenít been asleep, and you wonít feel tired or sleepy. In
the past you might have slept snoring heedlessly, but if you really develop
wakefulness, that canít happen. How could you snore when you donít really
sleep? It is just the body which stops and rests. With this level of
mindfulness the mind is awake at all times of the day and night. It is ďBuddhoĒ: knowing, awake, clear and bright with its
own inner happiness. At this level the mind has itís
own self-sustaining energy and is free of drowsiness, even though it doesnít
sleep in the normal sense. If you have developed your meditation to this point,
you might be able to keep going for two or three days without sleep. Even then,
if you start to feel sleepy because the body has become exhausted, you can
focus on your meditation object and enter a state of deep Samadhi immediately,
and because of your skill, you might only need to stay in it for five or ten
minutes to feel as refreshed as if you had slept all day and all night.

As far as going
without sleep is concerned, if you are beyond worrying about the body then
there is no problem, but you should know what amount is right. You should
reflect on the state of the body and what itís been through and then adjust
your sleep according to itís needs. When you have
reached this stage in practice, you donít have to consciously tell the body
what to do, it tells itself. There is a part of the mind that is constantly
prodding and urging you on. Even if you feel lazy, you wonít be able to indulge
in moods because there will always be this voice encouraging and arousing you
to make diligent effort. You will reach a point where you can no longer
stagnate, where the practice takes care of itself. Try it out. You have done
enough study and received enough teaching already, now itís time to use what
youíve learned to train yourself.

In the
beginning, kayaviveka (physical seclusion) is
very important. Itís good to reflect on the Venerable Sariputtaís
teaching that kayaviveka is the cause for the
arising of cittaviveka (mental seclusion) and cittaviveka is the cause for the arising of upattiviveka (seclusion from the defilements or Nibbana). Some people say that itís not important and that
if you are peaceful, you can live anywhere. Thatís true, but in the early
stages of your practice, you should see kayaviveka
as really necessary. One day you should try going to stay in a lonely cremation
ground, miles away from anyone, or go up and meditate on some really desolate
and scary place. Make the practice challenging the whole night through, so you
know what it truly feels like.

In my early
years, I also used to think kayaviveka was not
so important. It was just an opinion I held, which didnít actually come from
experience. Once I started to practice, I actually began to apply the Buddhaís
teaching to my meditation and realized how at first kayaviveka
gives rise to cittaviveka. When you are still
a householder, what kind of kayaviveka do you
get? As soon as you step inside the front door thereís confusion and
complications, because thereís no physical seclusion. If you leave the house
and go to a secluded place, then the atmosphere for practice is totally different.

You must
understand for yourself the importance of kayaviveka
when you begin to practice. Once you gain kayaviveka,
you start to practice and gain knowledge of the Dhamma.
Once you start to practice, you need a teacher to give teaching and advice in
areas where you still misunderstand, because in actual fact itís where you
misunderstand that you think you understand correctly. If you have a skilful
teacher, he can advise you until you see where you have gone wrong. Itís
usually in the very place where you thought you were correct, because your
misunderstanding covers over all your thinking.

Some of the
scholar monks have studied a great deal and investigated the texts thoroughly,
but I recommend people to give themselves to the practice. When itís time to
study, itís all right to open the books and learn the conventional theory and
form, but when itís time to fight with the defilements, you have to go beyond
the theory and conventions. If you try fighting following the textbook model
too closely, you wonít be able to defeat your opponents. If you truly want to
get to grips with the defilements, you have to go beyond the books. This is the
way the practice has to be in reality. The textbooks were only compiled with
the intention of providing teachings in the form of examples. If you attach too
firmly to the books they could even cause you to lose your mindfulness, because
they were written on the basis of the sanna
and sankhara of the writers, who didnít
necessarily understand that all sankharado is condition the mind. Before you know it, theyíre off
down into the distant depths of the earth meeting with magical serpents (nagas), and when they come back up again they start
speaking serpent language and nobody knows what they are talking about. Itís just
crazy.

The forest
Masters didnít teach to practice like that. You might imagine the things in the
books to be exciting and interesting, but it isnít like that. Our teachers
showed us the way to give up defilements and root out our views, conceit and sense
of self. Itís a practice which involves dealing with the flesh and blood of the
defilements. However difficult it seems, you shouldnít be too quick to throw
out what you have inherited from these teachers of the forest tradition. It can
be possible to get quite deeply deluded about the mind and the practice of samadhi, because in the course of practice, things
which would normally seem unlikely to happen might actually come up, so you
canít always trust yourself. What would you do in such a situation? Iím always
careful about this.

In my first two
or three years of practice I still couldnít really trust myself, but after I
became more experienced in meditation and began to have some insight into the
dynamics of the mind, there were no problems. Whatever manifests in the course
of the practice, let it happen. Donít try to resist it. If you understand how
to practice, all these things will cease harmlessly by themselves. They turn
into objects for contemplation and you can use them as material for your meditation
and continue in a relaxed way. Perhaps you still have not tried this out. You
have done some meditation before, havenít you? Sometimes in the course of
meditation, things that shouldnít normally go wrong can go wrong. For instance,
you might begin sitting with a determination: ĎThis time no mucking about, Iím
really going to concentrate the mindí. But that day you donít get anywhere.
However, we like to make determinations in that way. Actually, Iíve observed
that usually the practice develops according to itís
own causes and conditions. Some nights you might begin sitting meditation with
the thought: ĎRight, tonight Iím not going to get up from my mat until at least
one in the morning.í Thinking like that, youíve already put yourself in an
unskillful state of mind, because in no time at all feelings of pain and
discomfort will be invading your senses from every direction, to the point
where it becomes so unbearable you might even think you are going to die. In
fact, the mind sets a length of time for sitting quite naturally by itself
without you having to estimate or establish fixed limits. Thereís no fixed
point or particular time to reach in the practice. Whether itís seven, eight or
nine oíclock, thatís not the most important thing; just keep meditating, maintaining
your equanimity and without forcing things. Donít be too compulsive or fixed in
your views about things, and donít try to coerce the heart with over ambitious
declarations of how this time you are really going to do it for certain. Of course
itís at those times that things become all the more uncertain.

You have to
allow the mind to relax. Let the breath flow easily, without making it too
short or too long. Donít try to do anything to it. Let the body be at ease and
keep putting effort into the meditation. A voice will come up and ask: ĎHow
many hours will you practice tonight? What time will you stop meditating?íIt will keep coming back to ask you, so
cut it off: ĎHey you, donít interfere!í You have to
keep subduing it, because all such thoughts are just the defilements in one
form or another, coming to bother you. Donít pay any attention to them, just
rebuke them: ĎWhether I wish to stop early or late is none of your damn
business! If I were to sit meditation the whole night through, itís not going
to harm anybody, so just leave me alone!í Keep cutting them off like this and
then keep practicing at your own pace. By letting the mind be at ease it will
become calm and you will gain a better understanding of the power of attachment
and how much you are affected by the tendency to create stories and give undue
importance to things. It might take what seems like forever (maybe more than
half the night) before you find that you can sit with ease, but this is an
indication that you have found the right way in meditation. Then you will have
some insight into how your attachment and clinging truly is defilement and that
it exists because the mind gets caught in wrong view.

There are some
people who will light a stick of incense in front of them before they sit down
to meditate and then make a dramatic determination that they wonít get up until
the incense has completely burned down. Then they start meditating, but after
only five minutes they feel as if a whole hour has passed and when they open
their eyes to look at the incense stick they get a surprise when they find that
itís still really long. They close their eyes and restart the meditation and in
no time at all are checking the incense again. So, of course, their meditation
doesnít get anywhere. Donít be like that, itís like
being a monkey. You end up not doing any work at all. You spend the whole
period of the meditation thinking about that stick of incense, wondering
whether itís finished or not. Training the mind can easily get to be like this,
so donít attach too much importance to the time.

In meditation,
donít let tanhaand kilesaknow the rules of the game or what your goal is in the practice. The voice
of the defilements will come and ask you, ĎHow will you practice? How much will
you do? How much effort will you put into it? How late will you go?í It will keep bugging you until you make
some kind of agreement. If you say that you plan to sit until two in the
morning, the defilements will immediately start pestering you. You wonít even
have been sitting for an hour and already youíll feel restless and impatient to
finish the meditation. Then the hindrances will come up and say, ĎIs it so bad
that youíre going die? I thought you were going to really concentrate the mind
and yet look how shaky it still is. You made a vow and couldnít keep to it.í
Thinking like this, you just create suffering for yourself. You become self-critical
and end up hating yourself. You suffer all the more because thereís no one else
to use as a scapegoat and blame for the mess youíve got yourself into. If you
make idealistic vows or determinations, you feel honor-bound to hold to them
until you are either successful or die in the process. To do it right according
to this style, you have to practice intensely, without letting up. Another way
is to practice more gently, without making any fixed vows, though keeping up a
steady and persistent effort to train yourself. You
will find that sometimes the mind will become calm and the pain in the body
will subside. All that stiffness and pain in the legs will disappear by itself.

So there is this
balanced way of practice which means you contemplate everything that you
experience. Whatever you do, contemplate it thoroughly and donít give up the
work of meditation. Some people think that when the formal meditation ends, it
all stops and they can take a rest, so they let go of their meditation object
and stop contemplating. Donít be like that! Keep reflecting on all that you
experience. Whether you encounter good or bad people, rich or poor, important
or unimportant, young or old, keep contemplating everything. See that it is all
part of meditation.

Contemplating
and investigating the Dhamma means that you must
observe and reflect upon the various causes and conditions which influence the
mind. Contemplate the various mind-objects: large or small, good or bad, black
or white. If there is thinking, then note that the mind is Ďthinkingí and
notice how it is only just that much, in actuality. In the end, all mental
impressions can be lumped together as aniccam,
dukkham, anatta, not to
be grasped at or clung to. This is the Ďgraveyardí of all mind-objects. Throw
them into these three Ďpitsí and you will see them in the true light of the way
things are.

Seeing Ďaniccamí for example, is something which doesnít
lead to suffering, but it has to come from contemplation. For instance, if you
acquire something attractive and you are pleased with it, keep contemplating
that sense of happiness. Itís possible that you might use it for a while and then
start to get fed up with it and then want to give it away or sell it; if you
canít find anyone to take it off your hands you might even want to throw it
away. Why does this happen? Itís because aniccam.
If you canít sell or get rid of it, you start to suffer. This is the way it is.
After youíve really seen this clearly in one dimension, no matter how many
times it crops up youíll always be able to use that experience to help you to
see beyond appearances. Itís the same old story repeating itself. Once youíve
seen it once, you can see it everywhere.

Sometimes you
experience sights and sounds which are unpleasant to
the eye and ear, and that brings up aversion. Note that feeling of
dissatisfaction and contemplate it. Maybe at some point in the future the
feelings will change and you might start taking pleasure in what you previously
felt to be unpleasant. The things you like now might have been the cause for
aversion to arise in the past. Itís like that sometimes. Once you realize and
know clearly for yourself that all pleasant and unpleasant objects and
experiences are aniccam, dukkham
and anatta, then you
will not attach to them. You will naturally come to see all phenomena as equal,
as having the same intrinsic nature, and view everything simply as Dhamma arising into consciousness.

Well I have just
been talking about my experiences in the practice here as itís been for me,
without wishing to make it anything special. When you come to talk about the Dhamma with me, itís my job to tell you what I know. But
really itís not something you should spend all your time talking about, the best thing is to get down to the practice. Like
when you call a friend inviting him to go somewhere with you. You ask him, ĎAre
you going?í and he says yes, so you both go off straight away, simply and
without any fuss. Thatís the way to practice.

If you
experience different kinds of nimitta during
meditation, such as visions of heavenly beings, before anything else itís
important to observe the state of mind very closely. Donít forget this basic
principle. The mind has to be calm for you to experience these things. Be
careful not to practice with desire either to experience nimitta
or not to experience them. If they arise, contemplate them and donít let them
delude you. Reflect that they are not you and they donít belong to you. They
are aniccam, dukkham,
anatta, just like all other mind-objects. If you
do experience them, donít let your mind become too interested or dwell on them.
If they donít disappear by themselves, re-establish mindfulness. Put all your
attention on the breath, taking a few extra deep breaths. If you take at least
three extra-long breaths you should be able to cut out the nimitta.
You must keep re-establishing awareness in this way as you continue to practice.

Donít view these
things as you or belonging to you. They are merely nimitta
which can deceive the mind into attraction, aversion or fear. Nimitta are deluding and uncertain. If you do
experience them, donít give them undue importance or rush after them, because
they are not really you. As soon as you experience any kind of nimitta, you should immediately turn your
attention back to examine the mind itself. Donít give up this basic principle,
you will tend to get caught up in nimitta and
can become deluded or even crazy. You might be so completely far gone that you
can no longer converse on the same wavelength as other people. Whatever you
experience, the thing which you can trust and be most certain about is your own
wisdom. If you experience nimitta, watch the
mind. It has to be calm, for you to experience them.

The important
point is to see nimitta as not-self. They can
be useful to someone with wisdom, but harmful to someone without. Keep
practicing until you are no longer excited by nimitta.
If they arise they arise, if they donít they donít. Donít be afraid of them. If
your wisdom has developed to the point where you can trust your own judgment,
you wonít have any problems. At first you become excited by nimitta
because they are new and interesting and there is a desire to experience them.
You become satisfied with them and this is a form of delusion. You might not
even want to become attracted to them, but it happens and you donít know what
to do or the right way to practice, so they actually become a source of
suffering. If the mind goes into a good mood because of them, never mind. Establish
awareness of the good mood and know it as defilement and as something which is itself uncertain. This is the wise way to let go of your
attachment. Donít try to do it by telling yourself, ĎI donít want to be in a
good mood, why is there this good mood?í Thatís the wrong way to do it. Itís
meditating with wrong view. Itís going wrong right here, close at hand, not far
away. Thereís no need to fear nimittaor
any other aspect of the meditation. Iím just describing to you some of the
things that can happen, because I have some previous experience, however, you
must take this away and contemplate for yourselves whether what Iíve said is
right or wrong. Thatís enough for now.